Tips to tame your paperwork
Even though we apparently live in the digital age, we all have more papers (appointment letters, MOT certificates, pizza menus) that we can cope with. They come into our houses and then languish in piles!
Time to take action! Here are my tips for coming up with a system to work your way through what you've already got, and then stay on top of what comes in...
Here are my steps to helping you tackle those paper piles that are taking over all your surfaces:
- Find five bags or boxes – they could be those gift bags that everyone always has a million of (!), or old shoe boxes, they don’t need to be anything fancy at this stage.
Label up each of those containers with:
Action
For papers that relate to something you need to do in the next 7-14 days, e.g. pay a bill, renew insurance etc.
Appointment
For anything that has a future date on it that is going to require action further down the line.
Reference
Usually papers like MOT certificates, or warranties for products – things you don’t need to act on but would be stuck if you lost them.
Sentimental
These can be all sorts of different things – card, photos, notes etc.
Rubbish
Junk mail, old shopping lists or to do lists, old receipts that can either be shredded or put straight into the recycling bin.
- Go room by room and gather up all the papers you can find lying around, and start to split them out into each of your five categories.
- Once you’ve collated all of the papers, start with your Action container and check what needs doing by when. Take as many actions as you can immediately (book the appointment, pay the bill), or block out 10-15 minutes in your calendar in the next day or two to get those actions done.
- Once the action has been taken, work out which container that piece of paper then needs to go into – usually Reference or Rubbish!
- Block out 10-15 minutes every day to go through the rest of your containers, starting with Appointments.
And don’t forget to move those completed paper to Rubbish as you go.
It can be hard work making a start with paperwork, so don't try and do everything in one go, break it into chunks of time, or bags of paper so it doesn't feel overwhelming.
And if you need a hand finding a filing system that works for you for your reference papers, or just figuring out what papers fit what category, just drop me a line!